


After The Dawn

by itishawkeye



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Brotherly Love, Other, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-23
Updated: 2015-04-23
Packaged: 2018-03-25 08:10:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3803071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itishawkeye/pseuds/itishawkeye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dick would never have thought that Bruce could do something like this. And never to someone like Tim. He guessed that Jason's death had left him a little more messed up then any of them had guessed. Well, everyone accept Tim.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part One

-Part 1-

 

"Where is he?"

Dick stands in the hallway of Jason's building, arms crossed and eyes cold.

"Who?" Jason asks innocently, leaning against the door frame.

"I know he's here Jason. I swear to god if he's hurt-"

"I wasn't the one who hurt him," Jason interrupts, standing up straight again, defensive. "And he came to me."

"What?" Dick asks, eyes wide with confusion and surprise. He tries to look past Jason and into the apartment, but Jason is too wide and tall.

"Look," Jason says. "If you want to know what happened, you're going to have to ask him."

Jason steps aside. Dick moves into the apartment. It's small, with chipped, yellowing paint and crooked windows. The kitchen and living room are squeezed together into one room. The only furniture is a worn red couch and an old TV set. There's an overflowing ash tray sitting on the floor next to it. There are two doors on the far wall and Dick glances questioningly at Jason.

"Through there." Jason directs him.

Tim is sitting on Jason's bed, sitting cross-legged and half buried in a mound of blankets and sheets. His hair is sticking up and shoulders are slumped. There are ugly purple and black bruises across his face and one eye is swollen shut. Dick can't help the surge of anger that flows through him at the idea of someone doing that to Tim. He's only fifteen. Just a kid. (He knows that they all signed up for this life much earlier than fifteen. But looking at Tim now it seems too young).

He climbs onto the bed and sits in front of Tim, mirroring his cross-legged position.

"Hey, Dick," Tim says, attempting to smile at him.

"Hey, Tim. You gonna tell me what happened?"

Tim wraps one of the blankets tighter around him. "I couldn't stay with Bruce. I came to Jason because I knew he would understand."

"Understand what?" Dick asks, frowning slightly.

"Sometimes I think the Bruce that you grew up with and my Bruce are two completely different people," Tim says, looking away from Dick.

"Bruce is a good guy, of course, but sometimes he just... slips up."

"Tim." Dick almost whispers.

\--

A month ago Jason sought him out while he was on patrol. He was sitting on the edge of a roof, taking a quick break, when he'd heard boots hit the concrete behind him. He looked back and found Jason with his red hood mask off, mouth a grim line.

"We need to talk about the new Robin," Jason said.

He sat down next to Dick on the ledge and pulled out a cigarette.

"Oh come on, Jay. You have to stop being so hard on the kid. He wasn't trying to replace you. He was just trying to help Batman."

Jason rolled his eyes and took a drag. "Yeah, yeah. I've heard all that Dick. That's not why I'm here. I just... doesn't his relationship with Bruce seem a little... messed up to you?"

That was definitely not what Dick had expected. Bruce may not be the most emotionally supportive guardian but there was nothing _messed up_ about it.

"What are you talking about?" Dick asked.

"Have you ever watched them interact? There's  something off about them. I've seen it before, Dick. Before Bruce took me in."

No, Dick had thought, there's no way Bruce would ever do anything like that.

\--

But now Dick was sitting in front of someone he considered family, his baby brother, while he told Dick that he had been wrong. That he had missed it.

Dick hugs Tim and Tim let's him.

Tim looks exhausted just from explaining to Dick what happened and he leaves Tim to sleep. Tim curls himself in a ball on Jason’s bed. He closes the door to Jason’s room gently behind him.

Jason is sitting on the couch, smoking yet another cigarette. Dick sits down beside him and Jason looks at him, waiting for the inevitable questions they both know Dick is going to ask.

"How long did you know?" Dick starts off with.

"I'd suspected for months. He spilled the beans to me last month. I've been trying to convince him to leave since then. That was when I tried to convince you too."

"Why didn't you just tell me straight out he admitted it?" Dick demands. He's _angry_ and right now all he wants is to blame someone. Heshould be angry at Bruce. (And himself). But, Jason is here and Dick is angry.

"He wouldn't exactly have corroborated the story, Dick." Jason snaps. He is mad too. (At least he's mad at the right people).

"You're right. I'm sorry," Dick apologizes.

Jason just nods his head a little.

"What are we going to do about Bruce?" Dick asks.

Dick can't just let him get away with this. Rich and powerful as he was, no one had the right to do something like that. Especially to someone like Tim.

Jason's eyes narrow. "I'd shoot the fucker if it wouldn't upset baby bird."

Dick raises his eyebrows at the use of Tim's nickname. He hadn't known Jason cared that much about Tim. The last time he checked Jason was still trying to kill him. Dick wonders what else he has missed.

"We can't let him continue as Batman. Batman doesn't do that," Dick decides.

Jason nods his consent. "The Justice League won't just let us take him down, though. How are we going to convince them?"

Tim wouldn't want them to tell the whole Justice League about what happened, Dick was sure.

"Superman is close with Bruce. We'll tell him and maybe he can get him some help," Dick thinks aloud.

"Seriously? Some _help_? He deserves prison. Or _worse_ ," Jason argues, flicking his cigarette into the overflowing ashtray.

"I know. But how are we going to do that without hurting Tim too? If the media finds out about this..." Dick trails off. He doesn't want to think about what that could mean.

Jason sighs. "Fine," He grumbles. "We'll get him some fucking help."

\--

Tim emerges from Jason's room later that evening, when Jason has gone to grab some take out. Dick has the TV on some history documentary when Tim plops down on the couch beside him.

"Hey, Baby bird."

Tim rolls his eyes at the nickname. He's never liked it and Dick is glad for this sign of normalcy.

"Where's Jason?" Tim asks. He yawns, mouth stretched wide, and rubs and his eyes.

"Went to get some food," Dick answers.

"You put Jason in charge of food? All he ever gets is greasy fast food stuff," Tim groans.

"Oh, because you need to be so worried about putting weight," Dick chuckled.   

"Well we can't all have super-fast metabolisms," Tim complains.

The front door slams open to reveal Jason, carrying several bags of fast food.

Dick and Tim were at the kitchen counter the second Jason put the bags down to search for the food they wanted.

"Is this salad?" Tim marvels, holding up a plastic container of sad looking lettuce and tomatoes.

Before he can open it, Jason grabs it from his hands.

"Hey!" Tim says, trying to grab it back. Jason holds it up far above his head. Tim grimaces but doesn't attempt to reach it.

"You can have it if you agree to eat a burger with it," Jason orders.

Tim's grimace deepens, but he grabs a plain burger off the counter and takes a bite.

"Happy?" He asks.

"Very," Jason replies, handing Tim the salad.

They all sit on the couch and eat their burgers, Tim squished in-between them.

\--

Dick is surprised when Superboy shows up at the apartment, which is his first words upon seeing him standing in Jason's building is "Superboy?"

He's ignored and Superboy pushes past him into the apartment.

"Tim?" He says and Dick hadn't known that anyone from the Titans knew Tim's identity. He'll have to talk to him about that.

Tim stands up from the couch the minute he see's Superboy.

"Kon!" He exclaims, obviously surprised.

Kon crushes Tim in a hug and Tim wraps his hands in Kon’s shirt. Tim relaxes easily into Superboy’s hold on him; it’s the most calm Dick has seen Tim since he ran away from Bruce.

“What happened?” Kon asks Tim, fingers ghosting over the bruises on Tim's face.

“It doesn’t matter now. We can talk about it later. How did you know where I was?” Tim replies.

“I was worried when you didn’t show up to the tower so I came to check on you. I just listened for your voice.”

Dick is a little shocked watching this whole exchange. Kon finally lets go of Tim and they move to the kitchen. Tim gives Kon one of Jason’s leftover burgers from the night before, which he practically inhales. He obviously doesn’t share Tim’s feelings about fast food. Yet, Tim watches him eat it with puppy eyes. Dick can barely understand half of what the are talking about. It’s all inside jokes and sentences they apparently don’t need to finish for them both to understand. Dick doesn’t think he would be able to get a word in if he tried.

They only stop when Kon’s phone rings.

“Oh crap,” Kon says when he glances at the caller id. “It’s Ma.”

Tim laughs as Kon answers the phone. “Hello?” ...“Yes, ma’am.” ...“Sorry, ma’am.” ...“I’ll be right home.”

Dick can’t help but chuckle at the look on Kon’s face too.

“I have to go,” He tells Tim. “I’ll see you soon?”

Tim nods and they hug again. It lingers even longer than the first one.

“Hey, Superboy,” Dick says just as Kon’s hand reaches for the doorknob. “Mind if I ask a favor?”

“What is it?” Kon asks, suspicion evident in his tone.

“Do you know where I can find Superman?”

\--

“So,” Dick says, after Kon leaves. “You and Superboy?”

Tim blushes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about."

\--

Dick finds Superman standing on a building in Metropolis. He hears Dick coming from a mile away.

"Hello, Nightwing," Superman greets him.

"Superman," Dick replies.

"What brings you to Metropolis?" Superman asks.

"I need your help. It's Batman."

Superman frowns. His cape bellows behind him the wind, brilliant and red. Such a contrast to Bruce's black. "What's wrong?"

"He hurt Robin. He needs help," Dick says, attempting to keep the emotion out of his voice. (And failing. At least he knows Superman will sympathize.)

Superman blinks in surprise. Dick imagines that Superman is as surprised as he was.

"Are you sure? This doesn't make any sense, Nightwing. Batman fights against that kind of thing."

 _'You're telling me,'_ Dick thinks

"I used to think so too," Dick says. "But I think that losing the second Robin hurt him more than any of knew. Batman was my father. But Robin is my brother. And I can't condone what Batman has done to him."

Superman looks at him for a minute, eyes searching and then he nods. "I'll take care of it."

\--

Bruce shows up at Dick's apartment that night. He's standing at the balcony when Dick swings in.

"Tim is gone," He growls.

"You stay away from him," Dick says, voice dangerous.

Bruce looks at him, his eyes are dark and sad.

"I didn't mean to hurt him," Bruce tells him.

"Well, you did. You crossed the line, Bruce. If you didn't mean it, tell me something: why did you do it? Why didn't you stop?" Dick challenges.

Bruce's eyes fall toward the ground. Dick wants to punch him, but he knows that will make him just as bad.

"I- I don't know."

In that moment Bruce sounds so hopeless. So broken.

Dick pictures Tim's bruised face and can't bring himself to feel sorry for Bruce.

"Get out," He whispers, voice shaking with rage.

Bruce does.

  
-To Be Continued-

 


	2. Part Two

-Part 2-

 

Jason stands at the door of his bedroom, still groggy from sleep, and watches Tim clean his apartment. He's somehow procured some cleaning products and air freshener and while Jason has to admit it smells much better, he's not sure he likes this.

"You don't have to do that, you know."

"I know," Tim replies, not looking up and not making any move to stop.

"So why are you?" Jason questions.

Tim pauses this time. His hands freeze mid-scrub and he looks up to meet Jason's eyes. "I'm just being useful."

Useful. That word definitely bother Jason.

"I don't want you here just to use you, baby bird. I want to help you."

Tim looks away and starts scrubbing with even more force.

Jason lets out a sigh and moves to grab one of the extra sponges.

"What are you doing?" Tim asks as Jason moves to clean the spilled tomato sauce off the oven.

"Helping."

\--

Tim destroys his Robin costume.

He was supposed to meet Jason for patrol- his first one since leaving; they'd made him wait for the bruises to fade- after lunch with Dick, but he never turns up.

Jason may have been a little worried. He's rushed back to the apartment to find Tim standing over the tattered  red, yellow, and green remains of his costume.

"I don't think I can be Robin anymore."

Jason nods. He understands that feeling. That feeling is why he became Red Hood in the first place. Maybe he didn’t have as much reason to be so angry at Bruce as Tim did, but he still understood.

"Do you want to give it up?" He asks.

"No," Tim says. There's no hesitation.

Jason thinks he has the perfect new identity for him.

They work on designing Tim’s new costume all that night. When they finally finish Tim smiles widely at him; the first time Jason has seen him really smile since he ran away from Bruce.  

“I needed this,” He tells Jason. “I needed something to make me feel like I didn’t need him anymore.”

His eyes are bright and alive and Jason is so glad that Tim is getting past this. He’s seen so many people destroyed by stuff like this, back before he’d ever met Bruce. He’d watched people and entire families destroyed. But, Tim is strong.

Jason smiles back at him. “You never needed him.”

\--

None of them have seen Bruce in months. Jason doesn't mind, but he can tell that not knowing where he is is getting to Tim. He's considering asking Superman straight out but before he can they find out anyway.

He comes home late from patrol to find Tim, still in his Red Robin uniform standing by the door with a smoke bomb clutched defensively in his hand, ready to make an escape. He looks at him in confusion before following his gaze and there he is.

Bruce is standing by the open window, half hidden in the shadows. His face expresses clear anger in a way that Jason has never seen on Bruce before. (Not even when he was Batman.) Somehow, he’s sure Tim has seen it before. The moment Jason sees him he levels his gun at him. The moment he does that, Bruce has disappeared through the window.

Jason drops his gun, shuts and locks the window. Closes the curtains and turns on the light. Tim is still standing stock still by the door, clutching his smoke bomb like a life line.

“Tim,” Jason tries, uncertain.

Tim ignores him, and rushes past him to the bathroom. He hears the lock click and the shower turn on. Jason leans against the wall and takes a breath. Then he picks up the phone and calls Dick.

\--

It takes  Dick all of ten minutes to arrive at Jason’s apartment. Baby bird is still in the shower. Jason is pacing back and forth in front of the bathroom door, glancing periodically at the window for signs that Bruce has returned.

“I called Superman,” Dick says as he closes the door of the apartment behind him. “He said Bruce has been in an anger managment rehab type thing in Star City.”

“Well he didn’t look like he was managing his anger very well when I saw him,” Jason almost growls.

“Yeah, well, he walked out of the program. Superman is looking for him now. How is Tim?” Dick asks.

“I don’t know. Bruce said _something_ to him. He was freaked out but he ran for the bathroom before I could even ask him what happened,” Jason replies.

The shower turns off but the door to the bathroom remains closed. Jason leans over to knock on the wood. “Tim? Are you okay? Dick is here.”

The door remains closed and Jason turns back to Dick and rolls his eyes to cover how nervous this makes him.

Dick looks worriedly at the bathroom door. “Maybe we should call in the big guns.”

“The big guns?” Jason questions. “Who the hell is the big guns?”

Dick smiles and pulls out his phone.

Twenty minutes later, Conner Kent arrives at Jason’s apartment. Jason looks the kid over worriedly. He’d heard Tim talk to Kon on the phone before, and he was sure that he was head-over-heels in love with the kid. But that didn’t mean he trusted him.

“Where is he?” Kon asks.

Jason points to the bathroom door and Kon crosses the room. He knocks on the door and leans his head against the wood.

“Tim? It’s Kon.”

Jason hears the lock click and the door opens to allow Kon inside. He hears Dick let out a sigh of relief.

They sit on the ratty couch with the tv on but muted and wait for Kon and Tim to emerge. He can hear distorted sounds of their voices through the wall but he can’t make out what they are saying. They must be almost whispering, the walls in the apartment are so thin he can usually hear Tim breathing at night. He’s tempted to press his ear against the door and listen to what they are saying but he knows it would be a huge violation of Tim’s trust. Tim needs Jason to be someone he can trust right now.

Jason can’t stop looking at the window, he’s uneasy. He doesn’t think that Bruce would just let this go. He’d looked so angry…

It takes over an hour for Kon to come out the bathroom and Tim isn’t with him.

“He says he’ll be okay, that he just needs some time alone,” Kon explains.

“Did he say what Bruce said to him?” Dick asks.

“Yeah. I think he should be the one to tell you about it but… it’s not good.”

Jason could have told them that himself. He needs to know. Needs to be able to protect Tim.  But Kon is already heading out the door, apologizing and saying he’s late for his curfew.

\--

Tim finally comes out half an hour later. He takes his usual place between Jason and Dick on the couch. He smells like a mix of Jason’s soap (which he had initially refused to use and made Jason go out and buy his brand) and Kon-El.

“Why are you watching TV with the sound off?” Tim asks.

Jason just glares at him. There’s no way Tim is going to get away with acting like nothing happened and he’s absolutely and completely fine.

Tim sighs.

“What happened, Tim?” Dick asks.

“I came home and he was just- standing there. I probably wouldn’t have even noticed him if the window being open hadn’t made the apartment so cold.” Tim trails off. His eyes have remained focused on the floor this entire time.  Jason puts a hand of his shoulder and Tim jumps a little.

“What did he say?” Jason asks, his usually gruff voice soft.

“He was angry. He said that if it wasn’t for me, he would be fine. He said I was ungrateful that after everything he did for me I would turn on him. He said he wished he had never taken me in. I didn’t deserve to be Robin.”

“Tim, if anything, Bruce doesn’t deserve to be Batman. Batman stands for justice and kindness, and Bruce was practicing neither of those things when he hurt you. What he did was not your fault. It was his,” Dick says.

Tim looks at him, eyes wide and disbelieving. Like this information is too good to be true.

“He gave me everything,” Tim says.

“No, Tim. You went out and got everything yourself.”

\--

The next two days, Tim is a mess of nerves. He’s constantly working. They patrol at night, and Tim takes down every criminal they come across so quickly and efficiently Jason isn’t so much keeping up with as trailing after him in case something happens. During the day, Tim is impossible to drag away from his laptop. Increasing the security of the Batcave’s servers, researching for not only his cases, but his friends’ cases, and working on hacking supervillans’ computers.

Jason has tried everything to get Tim to sleep or even just take break. He even went so far as to hide the coffee machine but that simply resulted in Tim storming out of the apartment in a rage to buy a new one.

Dick stops by every chance he gets but even he can’t get Tim to calm down.  He sits by Tim and attempts to distract him but Tim only spares a moment to frown at him. “Not now, Dick. If I can just figure out this one line of code…”

“We need to get Tim out of Gotham,” Dick says, later. They are standing out in the hallway, whisper arguing so that Tim won’t hear. “Send him on a Teen Titans mission… just _something_.”

“Bruce is still out there. We need to keep him close,” Jason argues.

“He’ll be safer away from Gotham. Bruce has too much power here. And Kon and the other Titans can keep him safe. He needs to get away from all this. He hasn’t slept in days, Jason,” Dick points out.

Jason crosses his arms. “I _know_ that. But, I’m not trusting his safety to anyone else. They don’t know Bruce. They don’t know exactly what he’s capable of.”

“Well, I do. I’ll go with him. You can stay here and watch for any sign of Bruce and I’ll make sure Tim is okay. He needs his friends, Jay.”

“Fine,” Jason concedes. “If you can convince him, then I’m in.”

\--

Tim, it turns out, is not that hard to convince. All it takes is a phone call from Kon and a little prodding from Dick. Jason is honestly a little disappointed. He thought baby bird would hold out longer than that. But, he’s pulled himself away from his laptop to pack, so Jason can’t complain all that much.

He stands by the door when Tim and Dick are about to leave.

“Take care of yourself, Baby bird,” He says.

Tim drops his duffel bag and moves to hug him. “You too, Jason. See you soon.”

"Yeah, Tim, see you soon."

-To Be Continued-

 

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, okay, no idea where this came from. Also no idea if I like it, so I guess leave kudos if you do and you want to see more. Thanks for reading.


End file.
